Stocks (MXAP) rose and copper climbed to the highest in almost four months as China’s economic slowdown fueled speculation monetary policy will ease. The euro snapped a two-day decline as Spain’s borrowing costs fell at an auction and German investor confidence jumped the most on record.

Gross domestic product in China, the world’s second-largest economy, grew 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter, the slowest pace in more than two years, the statistics bureau said in Beijing. German confidence improved 32.2 points to minus 21.6, the ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim reported. Spain sold 4.88 billion euros ($6.2 billion) of bills, compared with the maximum 5 billion euros targeted, its first offering since S&P cut its credit rating by two steps last week.

“There’s a bias in China right now for more policy easing,” said Andrew Pease, Sydney-based chief investment strategist for the Asia-Pacific region at Russell Investment Group, which manages $150 billion. “We are hearing China’s senior leadership is very, very concerned about the outlook in Europe.”